Every week seem to bring not just one tough challenge but two, but that is the price of success as Saints to compete up there with the big boys.

Saints are finding out what it is like to be one of the big boys, there rarely seems to be a week apart from the International breaks where we are not playing a midweek game either in the Europa League or the League cup.

That is the price of success and it is something they have been aiming at for the past few seasons, there are those who bemoan the player transfers over the last couple of years, but the reality of that has been that we have been able to use the fee for each player to replace him with two.

The fact is that if we had kept that squad of 2013/14 together and not raked in big money we would not be in the position tat we are now, back then once you were past the starting XI, there was not much after that.

Of course Saints did not want the player departures en masse of 2014, but in hindsight that being forced upon them was a good thing, we had to put faith in our system and it paid dividends.

But over the last two years the squad has evolved to one that is big enough to handle the schedule that we now have, even last years squad would have struggled, but make no bones, the 2013/14 squad would have done well, but it would have achieved what it did that year and no more, it did not have the depth to be able to play 40 games a season, let alone the 50-60 that we may well face this term.

If we had stayed static in the summer of 2014 we may well have been 8th again, but I do not think we would have played in Europe nor had the cup runs that we had, nor would we have been on the cusp of European Champions League qualification, ironically something we missed out on due to a failure to rotate the squad enough in late November and December last year.

We now have a squad that is 75% experienced full internationals and 15% proven non internationals and then some promising youngsters.

It is this that means that we are now in a position to be able to play games in quick succession and get results even when the squad is stretched to breaking point through injury as it was i the win against Sunderland.

There are those that would prefer to see us not in Europe and out of the cups so that the Premier League can be concentrated on, but that is the mindset of perennial relegation strugglers and we are not in that category.

Off the field we have evolved as well, from Pochettino who likes a small compact group of players to pick from week in week out, to Ronald Koeman who was a great manager, used his squad but did not like playing youngsters and now to Claude Puel.

Puel was chosen carefully by Saints, despite doubts by some supporters who seemed to prefer anyone who was a household name, the reality for Saints was Puel had experience in France of doing exactly what Saints wanted to introduce here, that is a squad based system aimed at not only developing the experienced players but utilising the youngsters.

That has worked so far, indeed since we started our Europa League campaign we have been beaten only once, ironically in a game we dominated at Inter Milan, that makes it only one defeat in ten games in that period, so we have shown that the so called curse of playing in the Europa League hasn't affected us so far.

Now we face another tough test on Sunday against Chelsea, it is a game that will perhaps define the season for both teams, if Saints win they will again be on the cusp of the top six and for the Blues a win will suggest they are ready to challenge for the title, whilst defeat would see them lose ground.

For Saints though we are seeing the fruits of careful planning behind the scenes, it is long term planning that means we will be looking to keep movng forward although there will be setbacks along the way.

That is why the supporters need patience, even on Wednesday night twitter was full of Saints fans whinging that Boufal was rubbish and we had wasted our money, even though this was his first full game after coming back from a long injury and he had only two cameo sub appearances to his name, yet again it was proved that it is all about a little patience and not panicking at the slightest hiccup.

This season could be the best so far, the only issue at the moment is our injury list, once we have a full squad all fit we can surprise a few people this season.

Photo: Action Images

hmmm added 09:41 - Oct 28 This article conforms to the key requirements of Illingsworth buzzword bingo: " despite doubts by some supporters", "those that bemoan the player transfers over the last couple of years", "Saints fans whinging that [new signing] was rubbish", "supporters need patience", and "a game that will define a season".
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Ali_Diarea added 09:50 - Oct 28 I'd argue that the Sunderland game shows that we don't have the strength in depth and that our youngsters aren't ready yet. And apart from in the full back position we haven't really had any injuries so you can't keep using that as an excuse! Obviously J Rod doesn't count lol just glad we're not relying on him to replace Pelle or Mane's goals...
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Horndeansaint added 12:07 - Oct 28 I think the point that Nick is making is that we continue to build and improve, steadily and sensibly. Social media and the likes of these message boards is full of those that seek the immediate solution. Football, like any other sport is not like that. I for one would much rather see the steady improvement that we are showing with solid foundations and a decent looking superstructure. Some of the younger lads are without doubt not ready yet but if they aren't given their chance they never will be.

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SonicBoom added 12:21 - Oct 28 That's true nick you do love to listen to a vocal minority and then declare that Saints fans think Boufal is rubbish. You said the same with Mane and bought it up at every opportunity. I would say the much larger majority are fully behind these players. Even during a game you will hear the crowd groan when a player gives the ball away, but that often doesn't mean anything more than momentary frustration. 20 or 30 negative knee jerk comments on twitter doesn't represent the fanbase.

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SanMarco added 13:59 - Oct 28 The editorial line is certainly impeccably loyalist. Ali Diarea makes good points on the 'strength in depth' issue. May I upset a few people by saying I don't think that we are as good to watch as we were at times over the past three seasons? This season has gone pretty well so far - but there is a long way to go and we haven't beaten a top side yet...
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BoondockSaint added 14:01 - Oct 28 Yikes Nick! Please stop with "the board have a secret Jedi plan" routine! Puel seems to be a good manager, but I worry that "chosen carefully" means "works cheap" as so many big names on the short list turned us down. If Boufal doesn't produce that bit of magic, we'd be bemoaning the fact we can't beat a team that is in a relegation battle this early in the season. I don't think supporters should get on their own players while the game is being played. but you can't expect them to be watching with intensity and not groan when a player does something stupid, or misses a sitter. We are not "one of the big boys" they are concentrating on winning the League title, the FA Cup, and Champions League. If we were one of the "big boys", they wouldn't steal our lunch money every transfer window.

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steve73 added 14:22 - Oct 28 Some fair comments but the fact remains we're still light in two very key areas. With the amount of money sloshing around all premier league clubs (not just the big ones) that seems inexcusable. Is it because we've academy players ready to step up? Sadly it doesn't look like it. If a potentially excellent season turns out to be ruined by scrimping on a couple of squad players who wouldn't be livid? I just don't think the squad has as much depth as the article implies.

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SanDiegoSaint added 16:33 - Oct 28 After buying Trevor Francis from Nottingham Forrest in the first ever million pound transfer, John Bond said "Clough spent my million pounds better than I did". Does anyone really think Liverpool spent their 95m better than Southampton did? The folly of huge transfer fees is nearly universal. Even when Southampton spend big, it seldom works: Osvaldo? Ramirez? Look at the club's achievements over the last 7 or 8 seasons. Objectively, they are amazing. Anyone who doesn't appreciate this lives in a different universe to me. So either the club is riding a massive lucky streak, or they are better at the planning and strategizing than most of the rest of the league. I believe the latter, and I therefore expect the club to continue achieving more success - and not in a Leicester style 1-hit-wonder way. These are undoubtedly the best times since McMenemy's days to be a Saints fan, and I believe the changes in the game make the current successes more impressive.

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halftimeorange added 16:35 - Oct 28 I'm sorry - using "Saints" and "one of the big boys" in the same sentence is nonsensical. All over Europe the biggest clubs over time traditionally come from the bigger cities in their home countries and win most of their domestic titles. You can measure cities in different ways but let's take population as far as England is concerned. After London we have Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol and Manchester. You do get title-winning blips - Leicester, Deportivo La Coruna, Blackburn, Cagliari for example. Southampton is way down at around twenty-third in the list of official English cities with a population of 215,000, less than Barnsley, Rotherham and Walsall. The difference is that our club is now well-run by professionals who know their business and that has allowed Saints to punch above its weight and attract players of a calibre which you wouldn't normally see at a medium-sized club. We have a top half team but title contenders, I don't think so. Nothing wrong in aspiring to greater things but, realistically speaking, we are very lucky as supporters to have recently seen players like Bale, Lallana, Shaw, Mane, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlaine, Van Dijk, Tadic and many other real talents, quite likely including Boufal, play in our colours. Long may it continue but Saints operates to a strict budget, albeit a sensible one but, not one that will regularly see us penetrate the dominance of the big six with their money and the size of their fan bases. When the pitches start getting hard or sticky and the injuries become more regular, then we'll see just how much strength we have in depth facing so many matches this winter.

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SaintStu7 added 17:46 - Oct 28 At least the last 2 posts are made by people with some knowledge and perspective. Previous posts seem to come from fans that are so negative and can only harp on about where we could be or should or who we could have signed or should have signed. It is great that we have been able to use some of our younger players. I am currently loving our success and the fact we are mixing it with the big clubs. It is always good to look at areas to improve but some realistic ideas would help. We are not Barcelona, we are a medium size club seeking success in 4 competitions and doing very well.

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SaintBrock added 18:37 - Oct 28 Life is just a bagful of "what ifs" Nick but conjecture such as this doesn't add up to a row of beans. Had Cortese not resigned then Pochettino would not have left and we might be in the midst of a stadium revamp and have signed a dozen world class players and be challenging for the PL title. Not all change is good as you seem to suggest. Just to list all the player assets that we have lost through uncertainty and negligent management over the past 3 or 4 years should be enough to convince you that we are not necessarily in a better place today than we could have been in that different reality. I don't but into all this constant 20/20 vision that you have where it always the others and never you. It's foresight that matters

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SaintBrock added 19:01 - Oct 28 HTO, the Club v Population argument was fine in the days when the majority of players and fans came from the town or city of their birth and there were few financial incentives to take up football as a career, as say in the 50's and early 60's but this hasn't been the case for many, many years and the proposition is no longer true. In our globalised shrinking world few if any players play for their 'local' clubs and these all clubs have fanbases spanning the globe, which one could argue can explain exactly why Leicester City can win the PL Title.

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halftimeorange added 10:25 - Oct 29 A fair observation, Saint Brock but even if Saints had kept Bale, Lallana et al I very much doubt that our owners would have been sufficiently encouraged to add another tier to St Marys. We simply don't have the immediate fanbase to fill a larger stadium. We are currently as successful as we can expect to be but look at the gates. Our results have improved but attendances haven't. I think they would have done in cities the size of London, Birmingham or Liverpool.

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